Area counties seek boost from Super Bowl

NIN-HAI TSENG, KEN LEWIS AND JOSEPH BUSTOSThe Times-Union

Published Friday, January 07, 2005

When Jacksonville landed the chance to host the NFL's biggest sporting event, it seemed only natural for the Super Bowl Host Committee to include the city's surrounding counties in the mix. After all, Jacksonville has fewer hotels than other host cities and its downtown is smaller, too.

Now Clay, Nassau, St. Johns and other outlying counties are preparing their own parties.

Like the host cities before Jacksonville, neighboring counties want exposure. They hope to bring visitors back and perhaps land new business ventures.

Nassau County will showcase Amelia Island as a tourist hot spot with a trolley tour around the island Super Bowl weekend. Some expect the festivities will boost business at local bed and breakfasts, which unexpectedly suffered a sluggish summer because of the devastating hurricane season.

St. Johns County has had few problems attracting tourists to the nation's oldest city. With its beaches, posh golf courses and rich history, St. Johns draws an average 6 million visitors each year.

The Super Bowl will bring different guests than normal, said Jay Humphreys of the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and The Beaches Visitor and Convention Bureau.

"We want to make sure that corporate sponsors and people who plan their next business convention would remember us and think this is an ideal place to bring their business," Humphreys said.

Clay County might have a tougher job ahead. The growing county is known in Northeast Florida for its master-planned communities fit for suburban living.

Clay, with few hotels and no major downtown, will sell itself through family-friendly entertainment.

The county's Super Celebration, set in Green Cove Springs, will feature among other events a weeklong carnival and concert series along the scenic St. Johns River off Florida 16.

In the most modest sense, Clay hopes people outside Northeast Florida will begin to recognize the county and associate it with the more metropolitan Jacksonville.

Chamber Executive Director Kellie Jo Kilberg said the county's more ambitious goal is to bring visitors back for outdoor recreation and possible business ventures.

That's the goal of most Super Bowl host cities and their surrounding communities.

People will come

When Tampa hosted Super Bowl XXXV in 2001, nearby Pinellas County served as the city's hotel base, said Lee Daniel, assistant director of the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The county is known as a tourist spot, attracting so-called "snowbirds" from February to April, Daniel said.

"We've been on a really consistent growth pattern, but I can't really say it's because of the Super Bowl," he said.Yet the Super Bowl's short-term effects were visible in tax dollars, Daniel said. Pinellas County's tourism tax generated $300,000 more than the previous January, he said.

Whatever benefits may or may not emerge, officials in Angelina County just outside Houston said it's better to welcome the Super Bowl than be unprepared.

When Houston hosted the game last year, even the tiny city of Lufkin about an hour-and-a-half drive away drew visitors to its motels and retail shops.

Bill Wellborn, chief executive officer of the Lufkin/Angelina County Economic Development Partnership, said plenty of traffic flowed past on major roads and tourists spent the night.

"Although we cannot tell you the exact dollars, we feel like the benefit is significant," Wellborn said. "If I were the people in Brunswick, Ga., I would roll out the welcome mat."

Counties are ready

Similarly counties around Jacksonville have been preparing for the Feb. 6 game and the thousands of visitors that week.Clay County's Super Celebration begins Jan. 31 and ends Feb. 6. Organizers of the Riverfront Festival, the main attraction, said they expect 10,000 to show up at the weeklong carnival and concert series featuring John Michael Montgomery, Sammy Kershaw and Molly Hatchet.

"We want people to come who don't want the hassle of downtown [Jacksonville]," Clay County Tourism Development Director Eve Szymanski said.

The Riverfront Festival will span along Reynolds Park and Yacht Center, a 34-acre field overlooking the St. Johns River. The center is part of the larger industrial park and a former Navy base during WWII. Today the park leases space to various the ship-building businesses and other manufacturers.

On a recent tour with Joe Hapi, special events coordinator for Reynolds, pointed to internal roads, lights and other improvements made to the property. New palm trees lined the riverfront.

Reynolds will turn a warehouse that's ordinarily up for lease into a 50-foot-by-50-foot stage.

Hapi would not say how much Reynolds has spent preparing for the event, which is not Super Bowl-sanctioned, but said somewhere in the thousands.

Reynolds wants to market the yacht center as a potential site for high-rise condominiums or simply a suitable place for future outdoor concerts.

In St. Johns County, the Visitors and Convention Bureau will offer free hospitality seminars Jan. 12. The training will help anyone working in customer service during the Super Bowl and feature an expert in tourism marketing from Texas.

The same agency is sponsoring a cleanup campaign that will give participants perks for improving the appearance of their homes or businesses.

"It's like that old saying, 'You never get a second chance to make a first impression,' " Humphreys said.

In Ponte Vedra Beach, Charlene Weiss will share Super Bowl memorabilia collected over decades by her late husband, Don Weiss. Widely considered the father of the Super Bowl and a former executive director of the National Football League, Weiss amassed a collection of tickets, footballs, pins, art, photographs, correspondence and more from his 30-plus years of work with the league.

Another event will be a "Taste of the NFL," a pricey banquet featuring chefs from all Super Bowl host cities held at ATP International Headquarters. Tickets are $400 or $600.

"We're accustomed to hosting a lot of visitors, so we don't think the Super Bowl, short-term, is going to present us with a whole lot of challenges we're not already dealing with on a regular basis," said Glenn Hastings, executive director of the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council and St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and the Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau.

The immediate impact has been great at Bartram Trail High School, where the NFL supplied a new football field and training field in exchange for use of the grounds before the Super Bowl.

"Just the association is pretty special," said Athletic Director Barry Craig. The school also has a program in turf maintenance, and the students have been able to work with legendary NFL turf guru George Toma, he said.

Many of Nassau County's bed and breakfasts said business from the Super Bowl might make up for the hurricane season cancellations. February is ordinarily when reservations at bed and breakfasts are low.

The Super Bowl couldn't come at a better time, said Theresa Hamilton, owner of Fairbanks House.

She said the storms wiped out reservations and "we were really having a tough time."

Like St. Johns, Nassau also will have a countywide cleanup effort organized by Keep Nassau Beautiful on Jan. 22. Amelia Island will be on showcase with trolley routes through parts of downtown and the plantation.

The county also has planned various events sanctioned by the Super Bowl, like the maze at Conner's A-Maize-ing Acres made of winter rye, Fernandina Super Shellfish Feast, Shrimp and Boat Race and the American Beach 70th anniversary founding day celebration.

For information about Flagler County events, go to Jacksonville.com, keyword: flagler.

Nassau County

Jan. 28 to Feb. 12: Conner's A-Maize-ing Acres, off Nassau County Road 121 in Hilliard, 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays and noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays, $8 for ages 13 to 64 and $6 for ages 4 to 12 and those 65 and older, free for children 3 and younger.

Jan. 29 to 31: American Beach 70th anniversary founding day celebration, Peck Center on Jan. 29, Amelia Island Plantation on Jan. 30 and the Ritz Carlton on Jan. 31, will include the documentary short film "The Beach Lady" begins 7 to 10 p.m. Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, free but reservations required, information at (904) 261-3248